The crowd dissipated quickly, and when there was no movement outside, Su Mu poked his head out from the other end of the path, and a pair of hands behind him covered his mouth, pulling him back into the shadows.

Su Mu was caught off guard by someone, and there was a subconscious bang in his head.

Has it been discovered?

Just as he was brainstorming and thinking about countermeasures frantically, a familiar voice reached his ears.

"it's me."

This voice not only sounded very familiar, but also made Su Mu almost wonder if he was still in a dream.

Liu Xiaoran saw that Su Mu didn't seem to want to continue moving, so she let go of him too, but she didn't expect that just as she let go, Su Mu turned around and pressed his shoulder, and turned to push him against the wall.

Liu Xiaoran restrained her body's inertia of automatically wanting to fight back, but frowned slightly.

Su Mu finally confirmed from the corners of his bandage-wrapped face that the person in front of him was indeed Liu Xiaoran, and all kinds of complicated emotions surged up.

After all, three hours ago, he had just heard the bad news about Liu Xiaoran's loss to them from others.

A certain big rock in Su Mu's heart seemed to have finally fallen to the ground, which made the heavy burden that had been accumulated a lot lighter.

He knew how someone like Liu Xiaoran could be calculated so easily.

Compared with Su Mu's emotions, Liu Xiaoran felt more scared. It's not that no one noticed this place just now. If she didn't deliberately divert the topic and trick them to other places, how would Su Mu escape?

Thinking of this, his tone became more serious.

"How will you be here?"

Su Mu tried to condense his purpose of coming here into a few words, but because there were too many people and facts involved, he could only choke out one sentence: "It's a long story... But it's great that Liu Shaoqing is fine!"

In order not to be discovered, his voice was kept low, but he still emphasized his tone in the last sentence.

Although these two sentences seemed to be a bit inconsistent, Liu Xiaoran could hear the clear and identifiable joy in Su Mu's tone, and the strange feeling in her heart that had been suppressed for a long time suddenly started to move again.

"Yeah." He lowered his eyes slightly, avoided Su Mu's gaze on him, coughed softly and said, "There are too many people here, it's not safe, you come with me."

Liu Xiaoran was obviously much more familiar with this place than Su Mu. He took Su Mu and easily avoided several waves of patrolling people, and hid in a somewhat shabby room.

As soon as he opened the door, Su Mu smelled the tempting smell of food. He had hardly eaten anything all day and suddenly felt a little hungry.

Liu Xiaoran breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there was no one around, but when she turned her head, she found that Su Mu was looking at him pitifully, even her tone seemed aggrieved.

"Liu Shaoqing, why did you deliberately bring me to such a place full of food?"

Liu Xiaoran paused for a moment when she was about to say something. He felt that Su Mu looked very much like Lu Lingjue now. He felt helpless and thought it was a little funny, but his voice was still calm: "If you are hungry, just eat, sir.There are a few things they can't find."

Between "Is Liu Xiaoran joking with me" and "But the taste is really delicious", Su Mu chose the latter without much hesitation.

Liu Shaoqing has already spoken, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

But he was more restrained than Lu Lingjue, he just randomly picked a small pastry, and obediently waited for Liu Xiaoran to speak.

From the moment he entered the door, he had a premonition that Liu Xiaoran should explain something, and by the way criticize his inexplicable behavior here and make a deep self-criticism for his mistake that he was almost discovered.

Sure enough, seeing that Su Mu had already picked out something to eat, Liu Xiaoran thought about it, and finally asked, "It was you who caused the commotion just now?"

Su Mu really wanted to say that he was not the one who made the noise just now and caused him to be discovered, but thinking that Xiao Shitou was only ten years old, it was a bit immoral for him to say that like pulling a child to support him.

So he nodded and admitted his mistake: "Yes."

Seeing that Liu Xiaoran didn't speak immediately, Su Mu quickly made amends: "But it was really an accident."

"Why are you here?" Liu Xiaoran had a headache, as far as he thought, Su Mu should appear in the Marquis Mansion in Capital City at this moment, not in this dangerous cottage.

Su Mu saw that this problem really couldn't be bypassed, so he simply described what happened.

Liu Xiaoran frowned after listening to this tortuous experience, her heart was very complicated.

Unexpectedly, the two met again in Wangjiang City because of the same incident by accident.

Seeing that Liu Xiaoran still frowned after listening, but let out a sigh, Su Mu knew that he didn't intend to pursue the matter of his reckless intrusion, so he turned back immediately.

"Then why is Liu Shaoqing here?"

After asking, Su Mu realized that he was also quite concerned about this matter, and his tone was a little frustrated, "I wanted to go to the government office to find you and Chen Chu, but I was told that you were not there, and I was told that you and Li Chen were not here.After the governor left together, he never came back, and finally found this place, and when he was eavesdropping, he was told that you were...fortunately all right."

After Liu Xiaoran finished listening, she suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of guilt lingering in her heart.

He glanced sideways at Su Mu, who was eating snacks with his head down, and explained: "In the past year, there have been many cases of disappearances of women of similar age in various places, and they would not have been submitted to Dali Temple, just because there were too many., and after being investigated by the county magistrates of various places, they all pointed to Wangjiang City, so it was handed over to Dali Temple for handling."

"I didn't take over the dossier before, but it was handed over to Dali Temple Sizhi Wenlin, but he sent back the news that he slipped and fell into the water and died within half a month after he went on an envoy."

Su Mu gasped when he heard the words, and died within half a month of his mission, which really didn't sound like an accident.

Liu Xiaoran continued: "Since then, Dali Temple has sent two Dali Temple priests to go there one after another, but without exception, they all died of various reasons within half a month, and one person's body was not even found."

"In this way, no one dares to accept these files anymore, and they have been handed down to me one by one." Liu Xiaoran frowned and shook her head, "It's just... Li He used to be the servant of the Ministry of Rites in Capital City, and he was the same as my father.My old friend, I met him many times when I was young, and I have the impression that he abides by etiquette. I never thought that he would be in cahoots with others and murder the court officials. It is also for this reason, before I came to Wang Jiang, although I knew about it.There are many crises, but I didn't expect them to start so quickly."

Su Mu thought of Lu Lingjue, and couldn't help but feel worried. He didn't seem to be with Liu Xiaoran, so where did he go?

Before he could ask, Liu Xiaoran said: "Chenchu did disappear suddenly. That day we went to Li Inspector Li to ask about the specific situation. He did not hide the news that there were bandits outside the city, andOn the way, a yamen servant came to report that someone had found the bandits, so I went out with Li He to inquire, and Chen Chu stayed in the main hall. When we came back, he had disappeared.The Wang Jiang government office also searched, but did not find any trace of him, but in the corner of the main hall, I saw the mark he should have carved with a dagger in a hurry."

"That's the usage in the military to transmit signals, which means to let me pay attention to the interior of the government office."

In the past few days, Liu Xiaoran was not worried about Lu Lingjue's whereabouts, but being here, no matter how anxious she was, she could only endure it.

Seeing this, Su Mu reached out and patted Liu Xiaoran's shoulder lightly. He could feel the worry that the speaker deliberately concealed under the calm tone.

"Chenchu's martial arts are not bad, and he knows how to be flexible, so he should... be fine."

It must be a lie to say that you are not worried, but right now you can't mess yourself up because of this matter, and you can only look for Lu Lingjue's whereabouts carefully after you go back.

Liu Xiaoran nodded slightly, and continued: "Two days later, Li He said that his subordinates had found clues, and asked me to check with him.Unexpectedly, Li He took the antidote in advance that day, and the sachet he wore with him contained a very strong-smelling drug."

Su Mu was shocked when he heard the words, it turned out that it was true as those people said, Liu Xiaoran was drugged by Li He's tricks, so could the subsequent things be true?

Only now did he realize that Liu Xiaoran's supposedly cool sandalwood fragrance had been replaced by a somewhat pungent herbal scent, and he immediately became nervous.

"Liu Shaoqing, are you—are you injured?"

Liu Xiaoran was startled for a moment, then she didn't deny it, and nodded lightly: "Although I knew the fact that Li He was in collusion with others that day, I was powerless to fight against the ambush that had been set up, so I went down the mountain wall desperately.Unexpectedly, there is a cave that no one cares about underneath, and I barely escaped disaster there."

Even if Su Mu had never experienced it, he could still imagine that the scene at that time must have been so shocking that even his palms were sweating, and he couldn't help looking at Liu Xiaoran's face.

Could it be that the bandage on this face...was from an injury?

Liu Xiaoran obviously also sensed Su Mu's gaze, knowing what he wanted to ask, she shook her head and replied, "The face is just a disguise, you don't have to worry, the injury is fine. After I left the cliff that day, I was drugged.So exhausted, when I woke up, I met a man whose face was covered with bandages and who couldn’t speak, he wrote on the ground with a stick and told me that he was the cook in charge of food in this cottage.”

Su Mu came to his senses now, no wonder Liu Xiaoran brought him here, he dared to assume someone else's identity and sneaked into the cottage.

"Isn't he from the cottage?" Su Mu was a little puzzled, "Why help you?"

Just as Liu Xiaoran was about to continue speaking, footsteps came from outside the door suddenly. With a sharp look in his eyes, he grabbed Su Mu's wrist neatly, stuffed him into the haystack behind him, and hurriedly covered the back, leaning on it as if nothing had happened, pretending to take a nap.

Before Su Mu could react, he felt Liu Xiaoran's weight on his body, and could only hold his breath and listen to the movement outside with trepidation.

Someone kicked the door open, and Su Mu felt Liu Xiaoran tremble very professionally.

Very good, Dali Temple Shaoqing's acting skills are also at the level of an Oscar.

He thought bitterly.

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